


This Was No Chicken

by imaginarycircus



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Comment Fic, Crack, Dragons, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-25
Updated: 2011-06-25
Packaged: 2017-10-20 17:21:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,959
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/215174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/imaginarycircus/pseuds/imaginarycircus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sirona requested "Danny gets magicked into a tiny bb dragon" <a href="http://sirona-gs.livejournal.com/55387.html">originally partially posted here</a>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	This Was No Chicken

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sirona](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sirona/gifts).



It's hot and now Danny knows what hell is like because Steve is making him walk the Halema`uma`u Trail crossing the Kilauea Caldera. Everything is rock and dust, but there is green in places too trying to grow up through the rocks and in many spots succeeding, so it’s probably not really like hell.

It's cooler at this elevation, but it's still in the high 80s and too damn warm for someone with thin Jersey blood. And there is a lake of fire in the crater.

The crater, which Danny has learned is non-explosive, is safe to be near for the most part. It looks like a sinkhole on the surface of the moon. Steve just stares at it like, "Isn't nature the coolest?"

And it is pretty cool, in the way that something that could potentially melt your face off could be cool. Until the wind picks up and lofts Danny into the air and then tosses him down hard, right into the crater. The last thing he sees is Steve's shocked expression and then he closes his eyes and braces for impact...

He lands in something soft and warm, like a bath. He is tumbled about and it feels pleasant, soothing. It's the most at home he's felt since he arrived on this chain of islands.

Maybe he's dead and if he is, well, he's sad he never told Steve how he felt, and damn, Grace... he can't even think about Grace. But this isn't as horrible as he'd thought it would be. Then he flaps his wings. Uh...

He has wings?

Danny opens his eyes and everything is fire, but it's not burning him. He seems to be swimming in it, flapping his wings. He inspects himself and he also has paws with wicked looking cat-like claws, and _SWISH_ , he has a tail.

He surges forwards and his head breaks the surface of a molten lake. He struggles and pops up out of the lava. His wings flap valiantly, but he falls back into the fire, which again, feels like a nice warm bath.

He flaps harder and manages to fly a few feet this time before plopping back into the molten lake. He doesn't even know why he has this burning desire to fly, but for one thing he'd like to let Steve know he's OK, if he can. He opens his mouth and a squawk comes out. Well, that'll be a problem. But first he has to get out of the caldera and back to the trail. He finds he can run just at the surface of the lava and then leaps hard into the air and flaps for all he's worth. He's goes farther each time and finally makes it to the edge and then he discovers how to hover on the thermals and he forgets about Steve for a few minutes. Danny is made of sky and wind and joy.

Steve. Right. He has to find Steve. He flies along the edge of the caldera and finds his way back to the trail. Steve is still standing where Danny left him. He's on the phone and he's crying. He has his eyes covered with one hand, but Danny can see the tears tracking down his face.

Danny lands at Steve's feet. He's no bigger than one of Steve's boots and he squawks up at Steve.

Steve looks down at Danny and drops his phone.

Danny squawks as best he can, "It's me you idiot. Stop blubbering."

Steve can't seem to understand him though and he takes out his gun. Not good. Danny does the only thing he can think of, which is to claw Steve's gun hand. When Steve drops the gun Danny snatches it in his claws and drops it into the caldera. Steve goes into some fighting stance that probably has a name, but Danny just thinks of it as the "Oh, shit. Someone is about to get their ass handed to them pose."

OK. So Danny can't talk. But he can still spell and he writes out DANNO in the dust at Steve's feet.

Steve picks up his phone, from which Kono is still shrieking, asking if he's OK.

"I'm OK," he says unsteadily. "But there is some kind of chicken with a tail and it's writing words..."

"A chicken with--? Steve, are you high?"

Danny can hear Kono plain as day and that's how he discovers his ears, pointy like a cat's. He can direct them, kind of like a satellite dish. He can hear Steve's breathing, the faint thump of his heart in his chest, and he can hear Kono as clearly as if he's on the phone with her.

"Take a photo of the fucking chicken," Kono says.

Steve snaps a photo of Danny, who looks up and tries to smile at Kono, as if to say I'm not sure what I am, but I doubt it's a chicken.

He writes in the dust, "Chickens can't fly, moron."

Steve drops his phone again, but Danny deftly catches it in time to hear Kono shriek, which he assumes means she got the photo. Danny flies the phone up to Steve's hand and holds it out for him to take.

"Steve?! Steve! That's a dragon!"

Steve takes the phone and his eyes are big round and full of confusion, but he says, "No. It's Danny. The chicken is Danny."

"Danny is not a fucking chicken," Kono sounds eight flavors of fed up.

"Dragon, whatever." Steve does the hand flappy thing he picked up from Danny.

Danny lands on the ground and underlines the word 'moron' with his toes.

"What are you going to do?" Kono says.

Steve tugs on his hair and he looks a little hysterical. "I don't know. Bring him back with me, I guess. I can't leave him here."

Damn, right, Danny thinks. He wants to watch the Yankees game at six.

"Look, I'll call you when we-- how am I going to get him on the plane back home?" Steve starts pacing, but Kono doesn't have any suggestions.

"I'll call you when I think of something." Steve slips his phone back into his pocket, kneels down and says, "Danno?"

Danny squawks.

Steve reaches out a finger to touch Danny and Danny leans forward without thinking and chomps down on it hard. He might be a little hungry. He jumps back and makes a little mewling noise that means he's sorry.

Steve takes a small first aid kit out of his pack and wraps his bloody finger in some gauze and tape. He is smiling the entire time he's doing it.

Danny writes in the dust, "Y R U SMILING?"

Steve says, "Because you're not dead, Danny."

That's nice and all, but Danny can smell meat in Steve's pack and noses his way into it and finds a stash of beef jerky. He tears right through the plastic and chews happily. Steve laughs and then scritches Danny behind his right ear and Danny purrs, more of a rumble than a purr, and a puff of smoke shoots out his nose. He wonders if that's like a burp and if he should excuse himself.

"Hey, you'll fit in my pack!" Steve tucks Danny under his arm and takes him back to their rental car where he leaves Danny while he goes into the visitor center. He returns with a second pack, which he stows all his gear in. And then he has Danny crawl into his pack and he zips it closed. Danny curls up with his tail across his feet. It's dark and warm and smells vaguely of Steve. Danny couldn't ask for much more.

Steve unzips the pack and sets Danny on the front passenger seat and starts the car. They drive in silence and he catches Steve looking askance at him several times.

"What?" he squawks.

"We'll figure it out, Danny. I don't know how, but we'll get you back."

Danny feels kind of stupid, but maybe it's his little chicken brain, dragon, whatever, but it didn't occur to him that he could turn back into a man. He wouldn't be able to fly anymore if he was a man, but he can never be with Steve like he wanted to if he's a dragon. And Gracie. Grace needs her father. Though she'd probably be thrilled to meet a dragon, that is, if she wasn't scared out of her wits.

Getting home is surprisingly boring. Danny snoozes in Steve's pack and doesn't wake up until he unzips it on the lana'i behind his house.

Danny stretches and steps out onto the sand, which is cold. He shivers and creeps back into the pack, making a small mew of displeasure.

"Oh, are you cold?" Steve fetches him a blanket and lays it out on the sand.

Danny steps into it and material feels so nice in his claws he pulls at it until it is a shredded, nest like, clump.

He shoots Steve and apologetic glance.

“S’okay. That was Mary’s.” Steve rubs the back of his neck and says, “I was going to grill some chicken…”

Danny gives him the stink eye until Steve blushes and says, “I know. You’re not a chicken, but I don’t know what dragons eat.”

When Steve goes back inside, Danny follows him and chirps at the TV.

“Oh, you want to watch the game?” Steve turns on the set and finds the game and leaves Danny growling at the umpire’s call.

Steve spreads a tarp on the floor in front of the TV and sits down and on it next to Danny. He eats off a plate, but places pieces of chicken on the tarp in front of Danny, a little afraid to get too close after Danny bit him earlier.

Danny scarfs down pieces of grilled chicken breast until his belly feels warm and full and then he curls up in Steve’s lap and watches the rest of the game with his tail laid neatly across his feet. Steve scratches behind his ears.

During a commercial Steve says, “I always wanted a pet when I was a kid, but I was never allowed.”

Danny sighs through his nose, because Steve’s childhood is just depressing in so many ways. Though maybe it wasn’t so bad before his mom died.

“Yeah, it wasn’t….” Steve says.

Danny goes still and looks up at Steve and thinks, “Can you hear me?”

Steve looks down at Danny and nods, with those big confused eyes again.

“Thank fucking God,” Danny thinks. “I’ve been going crazy not being able to talk.”

“What’s it like?” Steve says.

“It actually feels kind of normal. I don’t know how to explain. Flying was amazing. Danny remembers flying so Steve can understand what he means. His eyes get even wider and Danny is worried Steve’s eyeballs are going to drop out and then he might eat them or something. Steve looks startled, but then laughs and it feels so good sitting on Steve’s lap while he shakes with laughter.

“I love you,” Danny thinks.

Steve drops a kiss between Danny’s ears and then suddenly Danny is cold and naked and sitting on Steve’s lap.

Steve does the bug-eyed thing again and then throws his arms around Danny and says, “I love you too.”

Danny looks down at himself. “Uh, I should put some clothes on.”

Steve pulls his shirt over his head and says, “Don’t bother.” He shifts so that he is lying on top of Danny.

“Can you still read my mind?” Danny asks.

“I don’t think so, but I am pretty sure I know what you’re thinking.” Steve brushes his lips against Danny’s and Danny sighs into the kiss, because Steve is exactly right.


End file.
